Even doctor gets dengue

Even doctor gets dengue

A doctor, four nurses and two cleaning staff at the city-run
Tarakan Hospital in West Jakarta are among the latest dengue
fever patients to be treated at the hospital, an official said on
Tuesday.

Dr. Atiyah, head of the Tarakan hospital's treatment unit,
said they were infected by the dengue virus while treating the
increasing number of dengue fever patients in the hospital.

"This is the sort of risk that we must face as hospital
workers," she said.

The hospital employees infected by the virus are physician
Endang, four nurses -- Gunawan, Karna Yudi, Tutik and Ninuk --
and two cleaning workers: Karna and Alim.

Atiyah said the hospital management had distributed food
supplements and mosquito-repellent lotion to hospital staff to
prevent them from being infected by the virus.

The hospital is treating 119 dengue patients on Tuesday.

Atiyah said the number of patients could still increase, while
many of the current inpatients have to be treated in the
hospital's corridors and mosque due to the lack of space in the
wards.

Therefore, she said, the hospital was preparing a large
additional room which could accommodate up to 25 patients.

She also said 30 nursing students from a number of schools had
been drafted into the hospital to help the dengue patients.

In the last major dengue outbreak in 1998, a Jakarta Health
Agency survey found that the greatest number of Aedes aegypti
mosquitoes was found in hospitals. -- ID Nugroho